On the morning of April 24, 2012, Chinese Vice President and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) Xi Jinping met at the Great Hall of the People with the SCO defense ministers, who are in Beijing to attend the SCO ministers' meeting. The SCO defense ministers include Kazakh Defence Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, Kyrgyz Defense Minister Taalaibek Omuraliev, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Khayrulloev, Uzbekistan's Deputy Defense Minister Rustam Niyazov, Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Muratbek Imanaliev and the deputy director of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure.

Xi said since the SCO's inception, its member states have united in close collaboration and made important achievements in promoting the continuous development of the Organization. Xi emphasized the importance of defense cooperation within the SCO framework, saying that over the past decade such cooperation had borne remarkable fruits by improving the mechanism and enriching the content of cooperation. SCO defense cooperation had added fresh content to relations among members, injected positive factors into maintaining regional security and made contributions to building a harmonious region of lasting peace and common prosperity, Xi said.

Xi said China, as the rotating president of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization this year, placed great importance on defense and security cooperation within the SCO framework. He expressed China's readiness to work with other SCO members to develop a blueprint for defense and security cooperation in the future and make solid efforts to advance practical cooperation in this field in accordance with the Charter of the Organization and the consensus of SCO heads of state based on mutual trust and benefit. Xi called for SCO countries to truly enhance the organization's capacity to fend off practical threats, develop a complete system of cooperation and secure long-term stability and prosperity in the region.

The SCO defense ministers thanked Xi for taking time off his busy schedule to attend the meeting and spoke highly of China's contributions during its rotating presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to deepening SCO defense and security cooperation. They said the SCO has conducted fruitful cooperation in defense and security cooperation and expressed readiness to continue cooperation on joint anti-terrorist military drills, cooperation among border defense forces and other defense and security cooperation in a bid to safeguard regional security and stability.

Also present at the meeting were State Councilor and Minister of National Defense General Liang Guanglie, Ma Xiaotian, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping, Qian Lihua, director of the Defense Ministry's Foreign Affairs Office, Ci Guowei, deputy director of the Defense Ministry's Foreign Affairs Office, as well as diplomatic envoys of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to China.